Facebook adds new gender options for users

You don't just have to be male or female on Facebook anymore. The social media giant is adding a customizable option with about 50 different terms people can use to identify their gender as well as preferred pronoun choices: him, her or them. (Feb.
AP

Facebook has nearly 1.2 billion users worldwide. Users who want to keep their gender private can still do so.

Facebook has added a customizable option under gender with about 50 terms.(Photo: Facebook screenshot)

The new feature was welcome news for advocacy groups.

For transgender people, the new feature "allows them to tell their authentic story in their own words," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of GLAAD, a gay, lesbian and transexual advocacy organization, in a statement.

However, not everyone agrees with Facebook's decision to add the feature.

"Of course Facebook is entitled to manage its wildly popular site as it sees fit, but here is the bottom line: It's impossible to deny the biological reality that humanity is divided into two halves — male and female," said Jeff Johnston, an issues analyst for Focus on the Family, an influential national religious organization based in Denver, in an interview with the AP.